TEACHERS STORIES

Allison McGee teaches 7th and 8th grade math at All Saints Catholic High School in Kanata, Ontario.

I began using the ThinkFun games with my grade 7 and 8 students four months ago, and they are loving it! In fact, the first thing I usually hear from my students now is, "are we doing Game Club today?!" We usually use Game Club once every couple of weeks, and during each session we focus on developing a different social skill and problem solving skill.

"They psychotically love it", said Armbrae's Grade Two Teacher, Megan Acheson, when asked about Thinkfun game play sessions. "The students are so excited by Rush Hour that they ask to play it whenever there is free time; it has replaced Lego!"

We have been using ThinkFun games for several years in our Strategies Lab at Clermont Elementary. All students in grades K-6 come to the lab at least once every six weeks for a lesson with me, the GT Resource Teacher. It's been a wonderfully positive experience for our school. Children and teachers love the games and always leave wishing for more time and asking when they get to come again.

I teach high school math in the sixth poorest community in the nation, and for us, math class is too often about passing our state’s standardized tests. While many of my students lack basic skills, I often see a high level of reasoning and problem-solving skills that I want to develop and encourage.

In my high school math classes, it is common that I start the class off with a brain teaser. This is usually a brain teaser puzzle from either ThinkFun's Visual Brain Storm set, an Ivan Moscovich or Martin Gardner book, or a brain teaser that I have gotten from the internet. The whole class participates and gets engaged in trying to solve these puzzles. If I ever forget the puzzle at the start of the class, they always remind me.

Right before the winter 2008 holidays, I stumbled upon an advertisement for Think Fun's new 36 Cube. This puzzle seemed like the ultimate challenge...complex, three-dimensional, intimidating. I had to order it.